The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design • Hacker News Board

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#41

Post by xipho » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 8:28 PM UTC

gfxgirl wrote: post #37

xipho wrote: post #12

We build scientific software ( http://taxonworks.org/ ) where interfaces are notoriously bad. I feel the scientific community would benefit so much from a (sponsored?) program that paired game developers (or UI/UX specialists, or game psychologists) with teams building scientific software. For example we help describe species- while not quite the same thing, gamers do that everywhere, skinning, equiping, stat-min-max…

Games just as often as not have terrible UIs. Take Destiny 2 for example. It's a nightmare of right click (no indication that you'd want to right click). And in particular games are flash for flash sake. I love it for games but I wouldn't want my app I'm trying to be productive with to animate every tiny motion or throw out sparks when I click a button. Further, much of the database is joypad controlled UIs

Right. But there are many games, many experiments to draw from.

|Further, much of the database is joypad controlled UIs

Scientific software requires exploring data, one could imagine many interfaces where joypads, VRs controllers, etc. could be useful and more intuitive ways to do this exploration.

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#42

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 8:33 PM UTC

marapuru wrote: post #27

Neputys wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a UI designer for almost a second decade now. In short textual content is the last thing I need from a site like this. Forgive me but that is just a load of pointless academic pedantry.

I disagree. I've been a UI / UX designer for various pieces of software and the thing I miss in all the collected screenshots online _is_ text. It makes things more easily searchable and comparable. For example, is a health bar vertically or horizontally positioned? Top right or top left? What's the used color? All these things could show me the obvious choice when designing a health bar in a specific type of game or…

[deleted]

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#43

Post by mimixco » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 8:45 PM UTC

Neputys wrote: post #30

petargyurov wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> scientific software ... where interfaces are notoriously bad. I think the problem here is two fold: bad UIs and bad APIs. In the science world, there doesn't seem to be any abstraction between backend and frotnend -- the whole thing is one intertwined mess. Scientists don't always write great software; they write scripts that get the job done quickly in a very specific way. Pair that with the lack of time that they…

How is Electron doing btw? I'm itching to use it in one project but it doesn't feel like it's getting any traction in the community for a long time now. Since it's a long term project I kind of get mixed feelings about using it.

Spotify is an Electron app that's doing well. Also my own company's experiences with it have been good.

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#44

Post by polishdude20 » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 8:46 PM UTC

petargyurov wrote: post #31

Neputys wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is Electron doing btw? I'm itching to use it in one project but it doesn't feel like it's getting any traction in the community for a long time now. Since it's a long term project I kind of get mixed feelings about using it.

This is my first project with it so I'm probably not in a position to provide much insight. So far development with it has been almost identical to coding a website, but maybe because I am yet to start on any OS dependant features. What makes you say that it isn't getting traction? AFAIK, some huge companies are using it to create their apps. I think it gets a lot of underserved hate, just because it's JS and because…

Is there any benefit to using electron vs a website with the same code? Especially if you want it to be free and accessible to everyone

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#45

Post by slmjkdbtl » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 8:47 PM UTC

Is there a trend of video game UI going flat? I've seen some Switch games that's ditching their stylistic UI and going for generic flat UIs, e.g. Pokemon Sword/Shield, and this makes me very sad, I hope they're just bad art direction. For app UI it's reasonable to go flat to maximize content readability, but for video games, where the goal is "fun", UI should also be fun, or at lease visually consistent with the game aesthetics, or even be a part of the game itself.

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#46

Post by ronjouch » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 8:53 PM UTC

mimixco wrote: post #43

Neputys wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is Electron doing btw? I'm itching to use it in one project but it doesn't feel like it's getting any traction in the community for a long time now. Since it's a long term project I kind of get mixed feelings about using it.

Spotify is an Electron app that's doing well. Also my own company's experiences with it have been good.

Spotify isn't an Electron app. It predates Electron and uses CEF ( https://bitbucket.org/chromiumembedded/cef , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_Embedded_Framework ), like Steam.

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#47

Post by westoncb » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 9:03 PM UTC

polishdude20 wrote: post #44

petargyurov wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my first project with it so I'm probably not in a position to provide much insight. So far development with it has been almost identical to coding a website, but maybe because I am yet to start on any OS dependant features. What makes you say that it isn't getting traction? AFAIK, some huge companies are using it to create their apps. I think it gets a lot of underserved hate, just because it's JS and because…

Is there any benefit to using electron vs a website with the same code? Especially if you want it to be free and accessible to everyone

I have built a couple Electron apps, one of which will be available as a commercial product soon.

The main advantages (over executing your app in-browser) to my knowledge:

1. You can execute native code outside normal browser sandbox

2. You get your own application window

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#48

Post by mauricesvay » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 9:12 PM UTC

Great resource. It would be great to have the animations also. How games transitions from one screen to another, or how the UI elements are animated is what makes game UI so cool.

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#49

Post by tomtheelder » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 9:34 PM UTC

slmjkdbtl wrote: post #45

Is there a trend of video game UI going flat? I've seen some Switch games that's ditching their stylistic UI and going for generic flat UIs, e.g. Pokemon Sword/Shield, and this makes me very sad, I hope they're just bad art direction. For app UI it's reasonable to go flat to maximize content readability, but for video games, where the goal is "fun", UI should also be fun, or at lease visually consistent with the game…

I'd say "sort of." I see flat UI designs in games in essentially two places.

The first is games where it seems stylistically appropriate within the aesthetic of the game. I'd argue Pokemon falls into this category somewhat, but that's definitely eye of the beholder. The flat UIs feel congruent enough with the world to me.

The second place you'll see flatter UIs sometimes is in the sort of "hub" UIs that many multiplayer games. They usually have a lot of functionality, are very much "out of game," and are incidentally normally built on web tech.

But for regular, in-game UIs? Not really IMO, not like it has been for apps.

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#50

Post by slmjkdbtl » Sat, Dec 05, 2020, 9:53 PM UTC

tomtheelder wrote: post #49

slmjkdbtl wrote: post #45

Is there a trend of video game UI going flat? I've seen some Switch games that's ditching their stylistic UI and going for generic flat UIs, e.g. Pokemon Sword/Shield, and this makes me very sad, I hope they're just bad art direction. For app UI it's reasonable to go flat to maximize content readability, but for video games, where the goal is "fun", UI should also be fun, or at lease visually consistent with the game…

I'd say "sort of." I see flat UI designs in games in essentially two places. The first is games where it seems stylistically appropriate within the aesthetic of the game. I'd argue Pokemon falls into this category somewhat, but that's definitely eye of the beholder. The flat UIs feel congruent enough with the world to me. The second place you'll see flatter UIs sometimes is in the sort of "hub" UIs that many multipla…

Yeah it's definitely eye of the beholder. A congruent example I can think of is a lot of immersive 3D games going more minimal on the UI, using plain text overlay and no visible style, e.g. Ghost of Tsushima, where I think the UI style helped the goal of "immersive". I can see Pokemon S/S is going for a more realistic or immersive 3D world and can benefit from a more minimal UI, but to me visually it turns out to resemble too much to the typical "flat design", and my personal visual taste is stopping me from understanding what it achieved on the game design level.

And I agree there're places like "hub" where it's more disconnected to the game world, and you can say it's less important for those to use a very consistent style. I would argue these places should also be fun and game-like (or, the UI interaction feedback should match with some of the in-game feedbacks), but that's more experimental and a different subject.